The ABS pump was activating every 15 seconds or so and generated a C1391. Replaced the ABS controller and pump accumulator with new Toyota parts. Not a difficult job and its done from above so not too messy either. I bought a an ABS scanner that does ABS and SRS/airbag. It's the Foxwell NT630Plus. Bleeding procedure was straight forward. Select air bleed with actuator replaced. Disconnect fluid reservoir level sensor, apply parking brake, turn car on (not all the way on if you know what I mean). Helper steps on brakes and holds down pedal, open bleeder on RR caliper, repeat RL caliper. Keep fluid topped off. Pump breaks and instructed to open front left bleeder (I found that odd because I always used to bleed furthest first on other cars). Instructions on scanner then has you pump and hold pedal and bleed front right. Next step it spends 90 seconds getting the system ready. Then press next and scanner depressurizes the system and turns on pump. When pump turns off go to next step which simply repeats the depressurize and pump cycling 6 times. All went well up to here. I'm all ready for what I expect is the next step which should be to bleed the actuator (there is a bleed screw on the ABS master cylinder) but my next step is bleeding is complete! Test drove and all is well. Solid brakes and no more code. But why didn't I need to bleed the solenoid-activated stroke simulator? And why was I not prompted to recalibrate the offset (I think that's what it's called)?
I don't know but I wouldn't worry about it The computer is smarter than we are right?. Everything's working great and you got no lights I'm assuming you bought the parts new so you got about $1,700 and those or whatever it is so everything should be hunky-dory wait for it to fail keep all your receipts so on and so forth but why the TIS system or tech or whatever didn't ask you to do something I have no clue I would be happy that it didn't ask for more just like everything else in this world. And you did it with an aftermarket scanner that's a great thing see these scanners are getting better and better so there's no need to run around doing silly things with software.
The offset learning is a normal part of that long-form bleed procedure, so the only times you need to do it separately afterward are if it didn't go right during the bleed procedure for some reason. More interesting about the skipped stroke-simulator bleed step. Folks who have Techstream can note that they not only have the Air Bleed Utility (the place to go for a bleed procedure like this), but on the Active Tests page, a whole bunch of individual a la carte brake bleed actions that the manual doesn't say much about. I have always suspected that what the Air Bleed Utility really does is just kick off the right Active Test bleed steps in the right order. So the knowledge of how to do each of those individual steps is baked into the car's ECU, and the sequence of which of those steps to do in which order is what's programmed into the scan tool. If so, it's possible Foxwell just left one out.
Well, thank you both for the great advice. The car is running fine, no more codes, no more "Christmas lights" on the instrument panel, no more excessive cycling of the pump. So nothing to complain about and the Foxwell NT630Plus only cost $135. I did spend $750 and $1060 for the two separate ABS components (I believe called the controller/pump/actuator/accumulator/master cylinder blah blah) from an Online Toyota discount dealer. Agreed, let the scanner guide me and nothing showed up as failed during the bleeding sequence. It's just odd that the ABS controller part has a bleed screw on it (I think it's called the stroke simulator bleed screw). Unlike the 8mm caliper bleed sctrew it is 10mm. The scanner never had me crack that open but I saw a few YouTubers using Techstream that did have to bleed it. On a side note this is not my car but I work out of my backyard for extra cash. So I'm not sure if I would describe the brakes are spongy or not. I know what a conventional brake pedal feels like (having done hundreds) but this ones a bit baffling. It stops great with out much pedal effort but I can actually bottom out the pedal (in which case I hear a winning pump sound and the Traction Control Icon lights up). Per owner's manual the Traction Control icon is normal when forcing the brake pedal when stopped and in drive but should I be able to press the pedal to the floor, not literally to the floor, but to the full extent of the master cylinder? Or did I (and the Foxwell) goof by not bleeding the stroke simulator
